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Ottoman Empire…
As Genghis Khan ravaged the Middle East in the 12th century, Islamic nomadic family groups
migrated into central Asia. Many of these groups settled into Anatolia (equivalent to modern-day
Turkey). These restless Anatolia Turkoman principalities were kept in check by the Greek
Byzantine Empire to the west and the Turkish Seljuk Empire to the east. A nomadic Turkoman
chieftain named Osman (1258–1326) established the foundations for a new empire, giving birth
to one of the longest-lasting dynasties in world history.
By the 14th century, those checks had begun to erode. The Byzantines, ruling a vast Roman
Catholic Empire from Constantinople, often neglected their Anatolian provinces. The Seljuks
also controlled far-flung lands, having conquered Persia, Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. However,
they fell to the Mongols in 1243; this created a power vacuum and triggered a wave of Turkish
refugees into Anatolia. The northwest corner of Anatolia was dominated by a beylik, which came
to be known as the Osmanli after its most famous chieftain, Osman. Very little of the early
history of Osman’s clan can be historically verified, though it is vividly remembered in folktale.
Turkish lore holds that Osman’s grandfather, Suleyman Sah, escaped from the Mongol invasion
of Iran around 1200. According to tradition, Suleyman drowned crossing the Euphrates River.
But, Suleyman’s son, Ertogul, is said to have led his men west. On the way, his Turkoman
warriors happened across a battle in which a large army was destroying a much smaller force.
Joining the small army for honor’s sake, Ertogul’s band helped defeat the larger army, which
turned out to be Mongols. The rescued army was led by none other than the Seljuk Sultan,
Alaeddin, who bestowed a fiefdom on Ertogul in gratitude. Ertogul was apparently
commissioned to guard Sogut, in the northwest of Anatolia, on the border between Byzantine
and Seljuk territories. He died around 1288, passing the task down to his son, Osman.
Osman, more aggressive than his father, was not content to remain in Sogut. Legend has it that
he received a heavenly vision of a vast tree growing from his chest, supported by the Caucasus,
Atlas, Taurus, and Haemus mountains. On the strength of this prophetic dream, Osman married
the woman that he loved, Malkhatun, believing that their descendents would rule a great empire.
History records that Osman also took more concrete steps towards his dream. Other Turkoman
warlords had already begun to expand their power by absorbing smaller beyliks. In 1299, Osman
stopped paying tribute to the Mongol Emperor, thus establishing an independent state. He and his
followers, the Osmanli, began to launch raids against Byzantine territories. Turkish tradition
remembers the Osmanli as ghazis (holy warriors) who fought against the infidel Christian
empire. Recently, some historians have challenged this view. They claim that Osman, a
traditional nomadic warlord, simply took advantage of Byzantine weakness to assert his strength
against settled farmland.
In 1301, Osman soundly defeated Byzantine forces near Nicea in a battle that established him as
the strongest leader of the region. Whether motivated by jihad (holy war), by nomadic solidarity,
or by the spoils of war, Turkoman ghazis from many different beyliks joined the Osmanli. In the
face of a growing Islamic army, many Anatolian Greeks began to flee to Constantinople. Others,
disgusted by Byzantine weakness and corruption, joined the Turkomans. Gradually the fortified
Christian cities in Anatolia fell before Osman’s forces. He conquered Eskishehir, Inonu, Bilejik,
and Yenishehir. Only the strongest Byzantine cities—Bursa, Nicea, and Nicomedia—managed to
hold out against him.
By 1308, Osman had surrounded the well-fortified city of Bursa, on the slopes of Mount
Olympus. Bursa was sturdily built, well supplied, and stubbornly defended. The siege continued
for eighteen long years, but Bursa finally gave in to the Ottomans in 1326. By the end of the
siege, Osman had grown old and sick, and he had placed his army under the command of his son
Orhan. Osman died in 1326 and was buried in Bursa. As the new chieftain, Orhan pursued his
father’s ambitions, taking Nicea in 1331 and Nicomedia in 1337. Orhan’s son and grandsons
would continue these conquests, eventually creating one of the world’s great empires. Osman is
said to have been a handsome and charismatic man, who inspired great devotion in his followers.
Despite his reputation for ruthlessness, he ruled justly, generally treating all ethnicities and
religions alike. He established an independent state, a standing army, and a legal system for his
people. In Europe, his name was corrupted over time to become Othoman, which in turn
eventually became Ottoman.
Thirty-five generations succeeded Osman as sultans of the Ottoman Empire; his dynasty was to
last until the early twentieth century. The Republic of Turkey abolished the sultanate in 1922,
and in 1924, the Ankara government sent all of the royal family into exile. Female members of
the sultanate could return to Turkey after thirty years; males would have to wait fifty. As Murad I
consolidated his hold on Anatolia and began to push into Europe, he was opposed by Prince
Lazar Hrebeljanovic of Serbia (1329–1389). Later made a saint of Serbia, this legendary figure
reunified Serbia and rallied the Slavic Christians to oppose the Turks.
In 1341, civil war broke out in the Byzantine Empire, between the young heir to the throne, John
V Palaeologus, and his regent John VI Cantacuzenus. To the east, Serbian king Stefan Uros IV
Dusan took full advantage of the resulting chaos. Without fighting any major battle on the open
field, Serbia absorbed Macedonia, Albania, and Thessaly from Byzantium. During Dusan’s
reign, the Serbian Empire more than doubled in size. The victories came cheap, given
Byzantium’s state of decay, and did not last. After Dusan’s sudden death in 1355, Serbia
disintegrated into its own civil war as noblemen vied for the throne. Dusan’s son and heir, Uros
V “the Weak,” was compelled to appoint Vukasin Mrnjavcevic as co-ruler.
In 1371, aware of the growing Ottoman threat, Vukasin joined forces with his brother Jovan
Ugljesa and marched on Murad I’s new capitol at Edirne. The sultan’s army routed the Serbs at
the Battle of the Maritsa River; both Vukasin and Jovan were killed. Later that year, Uros V also
passed away. Before his death, Uros V had bestowed the title of knez (prince) on Lazar
Hrebeljanovic, a nobleman whose land was situated between the Morava and Ibar rivers. Lazar
did not participate in Vukasin’s attack on the Ottomans. Instead, he set up his court in the city of
Krusevac, in northern Serbia. It was not long before Christian refugees began pouring into his
principality, fleeing the oncoming Turks. In the power vacuum left by the Serbian defeat, Lazar
quickly gained territory and power. Allied with the rulers of Bosnia and Hungary, Lazar helped
defeat Nikola Altomanovic of Hum. From this victory he gained the Hum territories, including
the mines of Rudnik. (Lazar already possessed the mine of Novo Brdo.) From the silver brought
up from these acquisitions, Lazar soon ruled the richest and the most powerful of the Serbian
principalities. Lazar worked diligently to restore good relations between the Serbian Orthodox
Church and the Byzantine Orthodox Church, which had a schism in 1351. The Patriarch of
Constantinople agreed to acknowledge the Serbian Church’s autonomy. In return, Lazar
relinquished the right of Serbian princes to call themselves emperors.
In 1378, the Church supported Lazar’s claim to the throne of Serbia. They proclaimed him “Lord
of the Serbs and the Danube, Stefan Prince Lazar, Autocrat of All Serbs.” Stefan and Autocrat
were semi-imperial titles, and Serbian epic poems usually describe Lazar as “tsar” or emperor.
Nevertheless, true to his promise, Lazar never took any formal title other than knez. As Islamic
incursions into Europe became more frequent, Lazar and other Christian Slavs found themselves
on the defensive. Putting aside their traditional enmities, Balkan feudal lords came together in a
coalition, led by Lazar, to stop the Ottoman advance. In the summer of 1389, the Ottoman army
launched an assault on the Kosovo region. On June 15 by the Julian Calendar (June 28 by the
Gregorian), Sultan Murad I and his sons met Prince Lazar’s forces in a monumental battle. The
death of Lazar is shrouded in highly emotional and wildly partisan legend. Some say he was
killed in battle, while others recount that he was taken prisoner and executed. What is certain is
that the prince died on the “Plain of Blackbirds” where the 1389 Battle of Kosovo was fought.
Serbs, viewing Lazar as a national hero and martyr, enshrined his legend in epic poetry and song.
After time he came to represent the Serbian predicament, as both a symbol of national
humiliation and of nationalistic pride.
A popular Serbian legend recounts that the prophet Elijah appeared to Lazar on the eve of the
battle. The prince was given a choice between an empire in heaven and an empire on earth. If he
wanted the heavenly empire, he would have to lose both his army and his life. To win the earthly
empire, he would have to treaty with the Turks. Choosing the everlasting over the ephemeral,
Lazar chose to fight. Lazar’s contemporary, Patriarch Danilo III, wrote that the prince addressed
his men before leading them into battle, saying, “It is better to die in battle than to live in
shame.” During his lifetime, Lazar devoted much of his energy to support and spread
Christianity in his realm. He ordered that many churches be built, including the magnificent
Ravanica monastery where his remains are interred. The Serbian Orthodox Church declared him
a saint and made his feast day June 28—the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo (also the Feast
of St. Vitus). It was on this date (June 28), more than five hundred years later, that Serbian
nationalists assassinated Archduke Ferdinand, plunging all of Europe into World War I.
In the late 14th century, Murad I (1326–1389) consolidated his rule over Anatolia and set about
conquest of southeastern Europe. Under his rule, the Osmanli principality became the Ottoman
Empire. Murad was born around 1326 into a powerful clan. His grandfather, Osman, had
established the Osmanli ghazi as the predominant fighting force of Anatolia. Osman’s son Orhan
had reinforced that position, pushing the boundaries of their principality all the way to Europe
though he did so partially by invitation. In 1341, Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaeologus
died, leaving the throne to his nine-year-old son, John V Palaeologus. However, the child’s
regent John VI Cantacuzenus had himself crowned emperor, setting off a ruinous six-year civil
war. In 1346, Cantacuzenus married his daughter Theodora to Orhan, thus securing an alliance
with the Ottomans. Turkish military assistance helped to establish Cantacuzenus’ rule. It also
gave the Ottomans their first foothold in Europe. In 1353, the Turks occupied the Greek
peninsula of Gallipoli.
Upon Orhan’s death in 1359, Murad immediately had his three brothers executed. This practice
of clearing away potential rivals to the throne became the established tradition of the Ottoman
Empire. Murad continued to expand Ottoman territory into Europe, seizing Edirne (Adrianople)
in 1361 and making it his new capitol. Thrace followed in 1364. Two years later, Filibe
(Philippopolis) also became part of his emerging Islamic empire. Alarmed by the rapid advance
of Murad’s armies, John V Palaeologus—who had taken back the Byzantine throne in 1354—
turned to the Western world. He begged the papacy for help in 1369, converting to Catholicism
himself and promising to heal the breach between the Latin and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
However, military intervention did not come from Rome, but from Byzantium’s perennial
enemy, Serbia. In 1371, King Vukasin led a coalition of Serbian and Bulgarian armies to try and
defeat the encroaching Turks, only to meet a crushing defeat at the Maritsa River. Thereafter,
Macedonia lay at Murad’s mercy.